Town Square

Planning Commission to hear bid tonight for 7-Eleven convenience store in downtown district

Original post made
on Dec 6, 2012

The Pleasanton Planning Commission will consider a bid tonight by the owners of the Union 76 gas station at First and Ray streets to tear down the station building there now and add a 7-Eleven convenience store with new fueling pumps and storage tanks.

Posted by Nancy s.
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 6, 2012 at 9:25 am

Are we sure this is actually a 7-11 and not just a convenience store? Beer is a large part of 7-11's profit. Hard to believe southland corp (parent co. of 7-11) would go this route. Also, I believe their gasoline brand is citgo.

"I love this little gas station. I think it adds so much old time charm to downtown. Can't we just keep it as it is?"

I think that you must be referring to the Pleasanton Gas Station on Main Street. The gas station described by the article is on First Street away from the downtown area and is not little and does not display any "old time charm". It looks pretty much like any other gas station.

Posted by Hank G
a resident of Highland Oaks
on Dec 6, 2012 at 11:15 am

7-11 no longer does business with Citgo. Citgo was a front for Hugo Chavez who gave gas discounts to low-income citizens in the Northeast and who engaged in other kinds of unAmerican communist practice like that.

Would prefer no 7-11 at the corner of First and Ray. Would create more back up traffic and take away business from Cole's and Big Bob's who have supported Pleasanton for many years. If you need 24 hour store, remember Safeway on Santa Rita.

Posted by Hank G
a resident of Highland Oaks
on Dec 6, 2012 at 11:43 am

The 7-11 is perfect for us who love convenience but don't want to patronize a unionized store like Safeway. I only do my shopping at Walmart and 7-11 -- which, as the ad jingle goes, entails experiencing real freedom.

There's really no need for this place and a 24 hour stop and shop is even less use. If you like convenience, go right next door to Cole's. Or the liquor store next to that. Or the dairy.

I'm not convinced it's going to bring all the crime that opponents are screaming about, but I am convinced it's completely unnecessary. Just because it's not on Main Street doesn't mean we need to put the corporate blight there.

If there's a willing buyer and seller, capitalism's laws of supply and demand dictate that they be left alone to engage in their transaction. It isn't for some yahoo in the neighborhood to say what is necessary or what isn't. After all, it's only a grocery store.

7-11? I can already see Cole's closing even though cole's sells alcohol.
I really don't care. I live downtown and only go to this station when I need a couple of gallons to get to Livermore where gas is much cheaper. As for all you people that think it's the little gas station on main street-READ the article-this is the station next to the mortuary on First Street.

I'm one of the "yahoos" a Birdland resident believes should have NO say in what happens on MY CORNER. I couldn't disagree more. If you think downtown Pleasanton will just roll over and let an out-of-town developer and an out-of-town owner come to our carefully planned downtown with a national 24-hour franchise, which is NOT NEEDED thanks to two 24-hour Safeway stores nearby, then YOU DON"T KNOW PLEASANTON.

Surely supply and demand shouldn't drive community decisions. There is a demand for illegal drugs. Should we allow the supply? Criminals demand opportunities to rob. Should we supply the opportunity? This proposed 7-Eleven supposedly will meet a demand for convenience. Where is the expanded demand that can't be met by our own small businesses? How many loaves of bread, or soft drinks, or candy bars need to be supplied within a five block radius? Towns are created by hundreds of individual decisions made by community leaders. So far, they have gotten it right in making Pleasanton a special place to live. How will having a 24-hour, brightly lit, twelve-pump 7-Eleven enhance the downtown core of a town that has been built carefully, over many years, decision by decision? The simple answer is that it won't.

Suddenly, when someone's own neighborhood is involved, they turn communist. I say let the free market decide for it surely is a better barometer of community value than a few reactionary communists who complain about anything and everything.

7-11 wants to move in because it knows there's a profit to be made. Profits reflect sales which reflect community embrace of the store. Stop being such phoney hypocrites. You wouldn't be acting like collectivists were it in someone else's backyard. If no one patronizes the store it will leave of its own accord. Meantime, I get my convenience.

I have never before been called a communist. Having earned a terrific living in the free enterprise system and having had a chance to support it in the ballot box and in my day-to-day actions, the label does not fit. I don't doubt for a minute that a 7-Eleven on that corner will prosper. But does that make it right for Pleasanton? Yes, the surrounding neighborhood has a different level of interest. That's because we are already served by plenty of late-night and all-night markets so we're just left with the inconveniences of liter, crime, traffic, loiterers and the rest. Does it take a communist to not want those things?

imho you david are indeed thinking like a communist. my guess is that you've been influenced by the secret union campaign to put a stop to the nonunionized (freedom loving) 7-11 workers who will gain employment in this economy where we so desperately need to get people minimum wage jobs. let's allow freedom to flourish the way it should. stop spouting the union line about traffic and the rest. these are all union talking points.

Posted by jake
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 8, 2012 at 3:34 pm

evan,

Keep fighting the good fight and all, but I'm afraid even patriots like you are becoming effected by the communist unions. You say that people need minimum wage jobs, but that is the line of the socialists. Minimum wage laws do no good and cause only harm to workers than would be willing to work for even lower wages. If you don't believe me just read this.

oh jake you're so right about that!!! i only mention minimum wage because that's what've we've got in the socialist state of regulatory california. it would be great if we could pay people less, because then the minimum wage earners of today, aside from the increased food stamps they'd be eligible for, could really make something of themselves by being forced to take on a second or third job. that is really what separates the wheat (upper crust) from the shaft (low lifes). the upper crust people of pleasanton are hard workers but the low lifes like at 7-11 and safeway really don't know what it is to work. they just fritter their lives away, lazing about behind a cash register or helping to stock shelves. i mean how difficult can that be? thanks for educating us. say, jake, have you ever considered becoming an educator? you would seem to be a natural.

Good lord, I love how these comments sections always turn into some sort of rightwing vs liberal soapbox. Hank G - so you do all your shopping at Walmart & 7-11 just because they're non-union? Seriously, read a history book sometime, they're handy for killing ignorant thoughts like that one. If not for unions we'd all be working 60hr+ weeks, without overtime, without child labor laws, without safety regulations, and without a minimum wage. Sounds awesome to me, I've always hated weekends, and the commie twinkie-killing unions that created them. And while we're at it, is there an easier way for me to send my dollars to China, like can I just make a check out to them personally? It'd be so much easier than the slow drawn out death the American economy and industry are being dealt at the hands of companies like Walmart, who get the majority of their sub-par products from China, and seem more interested in building stores over there, than helping the american workers they've employed over here.

OK everyone, cool the jets. This is Pleasanton after all so lets act accordingly. There are already 7-11's in Pleasanton and we have not fallen into a crime ridden or drunken state. If Coles sells alcohol then surely there cannot be any additional harm in 7-11 doing so. There are liquor stores on Main Street and has not bred drunkenness or crime or lead to teenage drinking. As far as need goes, we don't need banks on every corner downtown or a thousand Italian Restaurants, yet we have them. Why do we have them, because people who develop businesses such as banks and Italian Restaurants have determined a need, and if they were wrong and there is no need they go out of business.

I do not begrudge anyone who claims we do not need a 7-11. There are lots of things in the area we don't need. We do not need a message parlor with a bright red neon sign or a cigarette outlet on First Street, but we have both just a short block from downtown. A 7-11 seems like small potatoes compared to those fine establishments. If we don't need them and don't use them, they will go away. If they stay, then despite what I (or you) feel, enough people use them to justify their existence.

We have a regulatory process for new businesses in Pleasanton. If you don't think the Planning Commission is doing a good job, attend the meetings and speak up, or vote them out if you don't agree with their decisions. This is a Republic so use your elected officials who represent you. The loudest voice does not prevail, insults don't prevail, and in a Republic sometimes even the majority does not prevail. But if you convince your elected officials of your position, then you will prevail. Try it.

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